The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-26
UP AND DOWN RELIGION.
THE PIETY OF THE PRESENT DAY
TOO HORIZONTAL.

DiNiIo NedSureAuSuI NSeuSo W bTInB
the Wall of Character Into Plumb
The Divine Plumbline Needs to be
Thrown Over All Religion-Pressure
to Do Wrong.
BROOKLYN, Sept. 25-After the great
congregation had sung the long-meter
doxology in the Brooklyn Tabernacle this
morning, DR.. Talmage expounded the sixth
chapter of the second epistle to the Corin-
thians, setting forth the Importance of sepa-
ration from bad fellowship, and saying that
a man is no better than the company he
keeps Professor Henry Eyre Brown played
an organ solo, Sonata No. in d minor, by
Guillmani. The subject of the sermon was
GA Straight Up-and-Down Religion" and
the text was Amos vii, s: "And the Lord
said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? and
l said, A plumbline." Dr. Talmage said:
The solid masonry of the world has to me
a fascination. Walk about some of the tri-
umphal arches and the cathedrals, four or
six hundred years old, and see them stand
as erect as when they were builded, walls
of great height for centuries, not bending a
quarter of an inch this way or that. So
greatly honored were the masons who
builded these walls that they were free from
taxation and called ''freen masons The
trowel gets most of the credit for these
buildings, and its clear ringing on stone and
brick has sounded across the ages But
there is another implement of just as much
Importance as the trowel, and my text rec
ognizes it. Bricklayers, and stone masons,
and carpenters, in the buildings of walls,
use an instrument made of cord, at the
end of which a lump of lead is fastened
They drop it over the side of the wall, and
as the plummet naturally seeks the centre of
gravity in the earth, the workman discovers
where the wall recedeS and where it bulges
out, and Just what is the perpendicular
| Our text represents God as standing on the
wall of character, which the Israelites had
built, and in that way measuring it. And
| the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest
thous and said, a plumbline
What the world wants is a straight up
and-down religion Much of the so-called
| piety of the day bends this way and that, to
suit the times. 1t is horizontal with a low
state of sentiment and morals. Wehave all
| been building wall of character, and it is
| glaringly imperfect and needs reconstruc-
tion. How shall it be brought into the per-
pendiculars Only by the divine measure
ment. 'And the Lord said to me, Amos,
what seest thou! andaI said, A plumb
line"
The whole tendency of the time is to
make us act by the standard of what others
| do. If they play cards, we play cards. If
they dance, we dance. If they read certain
styles of books, we read them. We throw
over the wall of our character the tangled
| plumbline of other lives and reject the in
fallible test which Amos saw. The question
for me should not be what you think is
right, but what God thinks is right. This
perpetual reference to the behavior of
others, as though it decided anything but
1 f.,I1 a4..Ir,
the world. There are ten thousand
plumblines in use, but only one
is true and exact, and that is the
line of Gods eternal right There is a
mighty attempt being made to reconstruct
and fix up the Ten Commandments. To
many they seem too rigid The tower of
Pisa leans over about thirteen feet from the
perpendicular, and people go thousands of
miles to see its graceful inclination, and by
extra braces and various architectural con
! trivances it is kept leaning from century to
| century. Why not have the ten granite
blocks of Sinai set a little aslant! Why not
have the pillar of truth a leaning tower!
! Why is not an ellipse as good as a square.
| Why is not an oblique as good as straight
up and down! My friends, we must have
a standard shall it be Gods or mans?
The divine plumbline needs to be thrown
over all merchandise. Thousands of years
ago Solomon discovered the tendency of
| buyers to depreciate goods He saw man
| beating down an article lower and lower,
! and saying it was not worth the price
asked, and when he had purchased at the
lowest point he told everybody what a sharp
bargain he had struck, and how he had out
witted the merchant. Proverbs, Xxx, IA:
| at is naught it is naught, saith the buyer
but when he is gone his way, then he boast
eth" SO utterly askew is society in this
matter that you seldom find seller asking
| the price that he expects to get. He puts
| on higher value than he proposes to re
ceive, knowing that he will have TO drop.
| And if he wants fifty, he asks seventy-fye.
| And if he wants 900 he asks $500. st is
naught,n saith the buyer ''The fabric is de-
fective; the style of goods is poor; | can get
elsewhere better article at a smaller price
1t is out of fashion; it is damaged; it win
| fade; it will not wear well.n After awhile
| the merchant, from over-persuasion or from
| desire TO dispose of that particular stock of
goods, says: "Well, take it at your own
| price, and the purchaser goes home with
light step and calls into his private Office his
| confidential friends, and chuckles while he
| tells how that for half price he got the
goods. In other words, he lies and was
proud of it. Nothing would make times as
| good and the earning of livelihood so easy
| as the universal adoption of the law of
right. Suspicion strikes through all
! bargain-making. Men who sell know
1 not whether they will ever get
| the money. Purchasers know not
whether the goods shipped will be accord
ing to the sample. And what, with the
large number of clerks who are making
false entries and then absconding to Cana
| da, and the explosion Of firms that fail for
millions of dollars, honest men are at their
| wits end TO make an honest living. He who
stands up amid all the pressure and does
right is accomplishing something toward
| the establishment of a high commercial
prosperity. have deep sympathy for the
laboring classes who toll with hand and
! foot. But we must not forget the business
men who, without any complaint or ban
nered professions through the street, are
enduring IA stress of circumstances terrific
! The fortunate people of to-day are those
who are receiving daily wages on regular
salaries. And the men most to be pited
| are those who conduct business while
prices are falling, and yet try TO pay their
clerks and employees and are in such fear
! full straits that they would
| quit business tomorrow ii 10
J were not for the wreck and ruin Of
others. When people tell me at what a
ruinously low price they purchased an arti-
Gle it gives me more disnlay than satisfac-
tion. ! know II means the bankruptcy and
defalcaton of men In many departments.
| The men who toll with the brain need full
/ as much sympathy as those who toll with
the haud All business life IL struck through
| with suspicion and panics are only the re-